A BAJA CALIFORNIA SUR ODYESSY of life in the small fishing town of Santa Rosalia and travels throughout Mexico and elsewhere

January 5, 2010

Taking on the World

Today is my day for personal battles. I had been looking forward to sleeping in this morning, but when you are in town for only 2 weeks you have to take whatever appointments you can get. So I went and got my teeth cleaned at 7 am. I ended up having to buy a new toothbrush—yet more shekels out the door!

Then I spent two hours on the computer duplicating a billing statement from the physical therapy place I went to last summer to help repair my surgerized shoulder. (Did I mention in a past life I was a graphic artist so copying a relatively simple accounting statement was a time consuming but do-able occupation?) I had submitted this statement to the insurance company and cross-hatched out a portion of the itemized bill. I had to make a pretty statement without the hatch marks. Am I anal or what? I am resubmitting it to the physical therapy people now, along with the insurance benefits statements, to show them what they owe me since the stupid insurance people reimbursed them, not me, for my out-of-pocket expenses. These insurance/medical care claims are the worst. They seem to drag on forever and you feel like you expend way more energy than necessary. If you are lucky you may get some of your money back.

Next I started thinking about my cute little puppy Lupita who is recovering from Parvovirus and gets to come home this evening. Yay! Did I mention that in addition to Parvovirus she had two parasites (giardia and coccidia) as well as a urinary tract infection? She was one sick little puppy. When took her into the emergency vet her white blood cell count was down to 0.8 as compared to a normal count of 6. He really wasn’t sure she would survive. The regular vet just called me now to tell me how sad she was Lupita had gotten sick and that she’s seen a lot of little Chihuahua puppies go from bouncy and playful to sick with Parvovirus and be completely overcome within an hour and die. She was amazed Lupita made it. I too think it’s a miracle that she has survived. I can’t believe that breeder was so careless because everything my puppy had wrong had an incubation period that started in her timeframe. I can only attribute her recovery to lots of prayers from lots of people, excellent 24-hour veterinary care from Alameda East Veterinary Hospital and a strong constitution on the part of Lupita.

In any event after I finished writing a nasty letter to the physical therapy people I started stewing about the woman that sold the puppy to us who has not returned our phone calls or emails since Lupita got sick. She had a whole van load full of puppies, probably 15 of the little tiny guys—Chihuahuas, Teacup Chihuahuas, and Shitzus. I believe they must all have gotten sick with Parvo, and we know she probably wouldn’t to pay the $2000+ plus per puppy that Esperando and I had to cough up for Lupita’s treatment. When I talked to Esperando several hours ago he too was pretty angry about the breeder and planned to call a Carlsbad vet to see if any action could be taken against her. So often he and I are thinking about exactly the same issues at the same time that it is scary. We have a pretty strong connection to each other.

Tonight will be interesting. I will have to feed Lupita every 2 hours, then go for some more shoulder physical therapy (at a new place) at 8 am. Lupita will have to go with me in her crate (she hates her crate because she is not used to it.) Everytime I put her in a crate she starts screaming and yipping and I sure don’t want her to do that at the physical therapist’s. Good thing I am doing my battles today—I don’t think I will have any energy for them tomorrow after feeding the baby all night.

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My life--

Quien es?

An expatriate American wife living the slow country life in Baja and running the company guesthouse. Married to a copper mining man whom I call Esperando Esposo, means 'looking for my husband' in Spanish, the pen name I have given him for always getting lost in Home Depot. We have brought our three pets, the dog Sweet Pickle, the cat Sour Pickle, and our newest addition, a Chihuahua puppy Little Tickle, down here to live with us. We have adopted three feral Mexican cats: Frida, Carmencita, and Mrs. Moustache.

Lupita starts her own blog

Adventures with Lupita

You know this about your pets especially when they are still young--never leave them alone for too long. So what did I do? I slipped out of the room for a while and when I was out Lupita got a hold of my computer and started her own blog: adventureswithlupita.weebly.com.

P.A.W. Vet Clinic, Mulege, Baja California Sur

Help The Patrons of Animal Welfare (P.A.W.) Veterinary Clinic get up and running by December 2010. The clinic will offer spay/neuter services and vaccinations. We have the staff, we have the will and now all we need is you--and a little donation! Thanks.